Pioli lauds Fiorentina spirit

Pioli lauds Fiorentina spirit

04/04/2018 10:42

Stefano Pioli was full of praise for the spirit Fiorentina have
shown in recent weeks as they made it five wins from win with a 2-0
defeat of Udinese on Tuesday evening.

"We’re coming to tough
grounds and facing difficult opposition, showing character and trying to
take the game to them," said the Fiorentina coach, speaking in his
post-match press conference. "We want to control matches. We have
wonderful spirit and the commitment is sky high. I am hugely proud to
coach these players because they’re drawing on resources I didn’t know
they had. I’m delighted."

There was another impressive
performance from Jordan Veretout, one of the great success stories in
Florence this year, with Pioli admitting that his players are raising
the bar every week.

"The group is really improving collectively
as the individual performances get better," he said "I had great faith
in Veretout’s quality but I didn’t think he was going to be able to
improve quite so much. He’s a fantastic player – he has character,
personality, technical ability…

"There are lots of players that
are performing at a very high level and we need to try to keep that up.
We still have plenty of games to go and we can still improve our league
standing. I’m sure that we’ll give 100% from now until the end of the
season – we have some tough matches but it won’t be easy for the other
teams either."

The result leaves Fiorentina just three points off
sixth place, but Pioli has been reticent to discuss the Viola’s chances
of snatching an unlikely Europa League berth.

"It’s not that I
don’t want to talk about it," he insisted. "I look at it and we can be
satisfied but nothing’s decided yet. Two months ago, after the defeat to
Verona, we looked like a team fighting against relegation. We need to
stay focused and take it game by game – there are 24 points up for grabs
so the table can change."

The trip to Udine was a hugely
emotional one for the Fiorentina squad, coming just one month after the
death of captain Davide Astori.

"I’ve just try to help the guys
feel as comfortable as possible," explained Pioli. "I know how much it’s
affecting them and how much they’re hurting, so I just tried to listen
to them and speak about the match. Not much time has passed so of course
it’s still on our minds and we’ve been very aware that it was only a
month ago that we were here before."